Where Rivers Change Direction

This book is amazing! It is the first Western book I have been able to read since my brother who was a cowboy passed away of a tragic and unexpected death. He was my best friend. It could have been his life in another time and he would have loved it. Thank you for being part of the healing.

Call me an unsophisticated reader if you will but when I read a book, I do it for the story without much caring about the greater and deeper meaning. As I read Spragg's book I got to BE a "horse girl", I got to BE a ranch hand. I got to work a dude ranch and have far more responsibility than I could have imagined at that age. I got to live that life and still get the kids to soccer on time. It is the adventure I couldn't have imagined then and desperately needed now in my mid-forties with far less exciting responsibilities. I nearly passed on the book after reading the reviews, fearing it was too much "Art" and not enough "Story". Not only am I delighted I read it but am anxiously awaiting Spragg's next adventure.

As a person who also grew up in the NW part of Wyoming in the time period of this book there is much here that resonates. To me this was the journey of a young boy expected to be a man, perhaps sooner than he should, expected to be self sufficent, to put emotions aside and to deal with life at it's basic level-- in essence to grow up "cowboy". In that journey Mark could have turned hard and cold, instead he became introspective and uniquely sensitive to the world in which he lived. As an adult he examined in detail and with prose those relationships and rememberances and gave them to us. If you have ever wondered what happened to the cowboys of the long-ago-time they are here in this book. These days few people can live by or appreciate that philosophical outlook and even fewer try to maintain the effort. At times this was a hard read, often harsh and emotional, but an excellent trip. It was also a rememberance of wonderful Wyoming and home. Thanks Mark.

I too grew up in Wyoming spending brittle springs on horseback for my family. If ever you have wondered what it feels like to connect with the silence and spirit of the wilderness Mark is your surefooted guide. Not only does he whisper the secrets of humanity, but he also makes you achingly aware that you probably have never searched the world or your soul like you should have. Yet, after you have closed his book, your spirit stirs as if it finally understands all of those profound moments of your life that passed by before you got the chance to understand the meaning of them. This book stays with you. It leaves you feeling slightly exposed and makes you want to understand more about yourself. I read it and became homesick for the plains and even that Wyoming wind. Bravo Mark, I couldn't put it down and I didn't want it to end.

This is one of the most beautiful, enlightening and transporting books I have ever read. I am a housewife in Iowa and a contemporary of the author. I have never lived in a part of our country where man finds himself in the middle of the food chain. Mr. Spragg's essay's take me to that place in a way that my very senses become sotted with the sting of the Wyoming wind, the piercing cry of a horse's pain, the chaffing of a new pair of cowboy boots on a young boy's feet. His observations about the people in his life are precise, penetrating and without apology. I came to know the people in his world more intimately than I know friends and family in my own. It is amazing to me that the author lived the incredible life he has--in such an unforgiving, brutal, and spectacular environment as the Wyoming wilderness-- and yet retains the sensitivity to write about it with such clear, powerful, and poetic prose. This book cast a spell over me. I couldn't put it down and I didn't want it to end.

Mark Spragg's stories, like Jim Harrison's, feature larger-than-life characters, heroic actions, and spectacular landscape. They read like myths. But these are the true stories of Spragg's own childhood in a wondrous place. The exotic adventures are rendered so clearly that we feel ourselves in the middle of them, and see them as windows not only to Wyoming, but the human spirit. With descriptions so lyrical, dialog so trenchant, and passion so deeply felt, surely it is Spragg himself who turns rivers, with the power of his prose.